Aide in Yemen’s PLC to Asharq Al-Awsat: Washington’s Houthi Terrorist Designation Is Not Enough

Damage is seen to an American ship after a Houthi attack in the Gulf of Aden. (AP)
Damage is seen to an American ship after a Houthi attack in the Gulf of Aden. (AP)
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Aide in Yemen’s PLC to Asharq Al-Awsat: Washington’s Houthi Terrorist Designation Is Not Enough

Damage is seen to an American ship after a Houthi attack in the Gulf of Aden. (AP)
Damage is seen to an American ship after a Houthi attack in the Gulf of Aden. (AP)

Aide in the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Ahmed Saleh said the Iran-backed Houthi militias’ attacks on Red Sea shipping are part of their attempts to shirk their responsibilities towards peace.

In an interview to Asharq Al-Awsat, he noted that the attacks started taking place days before the agreements related to a UN-sponsored peace roadmap were to be signed.

Moreover, he remarked that Washington’s re-designation of the Houthis as terrorist is a positive step, but “it’s not enough.”

“We need for than his. The move does not rise up to the threat posed by the Houthis and the danger they pose to international navigation,” he added.

“The designation will be worthless if it doesn’t have an actual impact on this extremist terrorist group,” he warned.

“The government was the one to offer concessions to build bridges to reach peace,” he added.

On the other hand, the Houthis and the Iranians behind them, have exploited the current circumstances to create crises and shirk responsibilities by stirring chaos, Saleh explained.

“The state is keen on peace, but the Houthis and Iranians are not looking for just sustainable peace,” he lamented.

The developments in the Red Sea are the greatest evidence that the Houthis don’t want peace. They will use the Palestinian cause to avoid their responsibilities and they are promoting this claim before their supporters, he continued.

He noted that the Houthis’ terrorist designation “has veered us off the peace path, but we will remain ready for peace anyway.”

“If the Houthis are not defeated and their project in Yemen is not eliminated, then their harm will not be limited to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, but will spill over to other regions. The cost of eliminating them then will be much higher than it is now,” he warned.

Greater coordination

Saleh also criticized the state of cooperation between the legitimate government and the American administration. “The cooperation does not reflect the level of threats and challenges in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” he remarked.

“We hope there will be greater coordination and support in the future,” he stated, citing “joint interests and the Yemeni cause that is recognized by the international community and relevant international resolutions.”

“All we want is support to the state and its institutions so that we can stop this global threat, which is primarily negatively impacting the lives of the Yemeni people on the economic, political and military levels,” he went on to say.

‘Strangled the world’

Furthermore, he ruled out that the Houthi attacks were tied to the Israeli war on Gaza, revealing that the militias had carried out 18 piracy operations in the Red Sea even before the conflict erupted. He also noted their planting of marine mines in the Red Sea.

He said past experience has proven that strikes, whether by air or by sea, will not decide the war.

“We have nine years' experience of war with them. So, we know how they operate, what tactics they use and the means at their disposal,” he continued.

“Based on this, we believe that the air strikes will achieve very little. If they really want to make a real achievement against the militias, then the strikes must continue, but real and effective coordination must also take place between the Americans, and the coalition it is leading, with the Yemeni government and Arab coalition,” he stressed.

The Houthis “have strangled the world” at the Bab al-Mandeb Strait through which over 20 percent of global trade passes, he noted. This strait is very important and the developments there will have a direct and indirect impact on very important countries.

Saleh added that it was “naive” to believe that the attacks in the Red Sea were solely tied to Gaza. “This is not true at all because the Houthis have been practicing piracy in the area and they have carried out over 18 operations before the developments unfolded in Gaza,” he said, while also citing the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the militias.

“The Houthis are an Iranian proxy, and they receive everything they need from the Iranian regime. They receive their orders from Tehran, not Sanaa,” he said.

Saleh underlined the importance of liberating the Hodeidah province from the Houthis, saying it is a vital supply route from Iran.

He said the Yemeni forces have a plan in place to liberate it, but they need support from the Arab coalition and logistic support from “friends, starting with the Americans.”

History of Houthis

Saleh remarked that many people believe that the Houthi terrorists are a recent arrival in Yemen. “This is not true,” he stressed. “The movement was first formed in the late 1970s and then transformed into a main organization in the early 1980s.”

It was then headed by Badreddine al-Houthi and its first terrorist act was documented in Yemen in 1983. The Houthis attacked cinemas in Sanaa and later that year, a fatwa was issued against women and female students at universities. They were attacked with acid, leaving them with scars and burns. Several women were killed during that period.

“The Houthis were born of terrorist extremist ideology that doesn’t believe in equality or the state and its institutions,” Saleh said.



Israel Poised to Approve Ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israeli Official Says

 A photo shows destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
A photo shows destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Israel Poised to Approve Ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israeli Official Says

 A photo shows destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
A photo shows destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Israel looks set to approve a US plan for a ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah on Tuesday, a senior Israeli official said, clearing the way for an end to the war which has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza conflict 14 months ago.

Israel's security cabinet is expected to convene later on Tuesday to discuss and likely approve the text at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said.

This would pave the way for a ceasefire declaration by US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, four senior Lebanese sources told Reuters on Monday.

In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday, "We're close" but "nothing is done until everything is done". The French presidency said discussions on a ceasefire had made significant progress.

The agreement has already won approval in Beirut, where Lebanon's deputy parliament speaker official told Reuters on Monday there were no serious obstacles left to start implementing it - unless Netanyahu changed his mind.

Netanyahu's office declined on Monday to comment on reports that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the text of a deal.

Hezbollah, seen as a terrorist group by Washington, has endorsed its ally Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to negotiate.

The plan requires Israeli troops to withdraw from south Lebanon and Lebanese army troops to deploy in the border region - a Hezbollah stronghold - within 60 days, Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon's deputy parliament speaker, and a second Israeli official told Reuters.

Signs of a breakthrough have been accompanied by military escalation, with Israeli airstrikes demolishing more of Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs on Monday.

The destruction across wide areas of Lebanon brings into focus a huge reconstruction bill awaiting cash-strapped Lebanon, with more than 1 million people displaced.

In Israel, a ceasefire will pave the way for 60,000 people to return to homes in the north, which they evacuated as Hezbollah began firing rockets in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas a day after that group's Oct. 7, 2023 assault.

PAINFUL BLOWS

Israel has dealt Hezbollah massive blows since going on the offensive against the group in September, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders, and pounding areas of Lebanon where the group holds sway. The group has kept up rocket fire into Israel, firing some 250 rockets on Sunday.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said on Monday that Israel would maintain an ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement. Lebanon has previously objected to Israel being granted such a right, and Lebanese officials have said such language is not included in the draft proposal.

Israel would be able to strike against "imminent threats" only, the second Israeli official said.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday gaps between the two parties have narrowed significantly but there are still steps they need to take to reach an agreement.

"Oftentimes the very last stages of an agreement are the most difficult because the hardest issues are left to the end," he said. "We are pushing as hard as we can."

In Beirut, Bou Saab told Reuters on Monday there were "no serious obstacles" left to start implementing a US-proposed ceasefire with Israel, "unless Netanyahu changes his mind".

Over the past year, more than 3,750 people have been killed and over one million have been forced from their homes, according to Lebanon's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.

Hezbollah strikes have killed 45 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. At least 73 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Israel, the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli authorities.

Biden's administration, which leaves office in January, has emphasized diplomacy to end the Lebanon conflict, even as all negotiations to halt the parallel war in Gaza are frozen.

Diplomacy over Lebanon has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km (20 miles) from the Israeli border, behind the Litani River, and the regular Lebanese army to enter the frontier region.

Israel has long complained that 1701 was never properly implemented, pointing to the presence of Hezbollah fighters and weapons at the border. Lebanon has also complained that Israel has violated the agreement, noting regular violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli warplanes.